After a meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, POTUS Donald Trump said in a joint press conference on September 29, “Today is a historic day for peace. Netanyahu and I just completed a meeting on Iran, trade, expansion of Abraham Accords and how to end war in Gaza. Let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East. This plan means immediate end to war itself, not just in Gaza. Arab and Muslim countries have committed to demilitarising Gaza. All parties will agree on a timeline for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza, and Arab countries will deal with Hamas.”
Trump further said that if Hamas rejects the proposal, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.” Before the joint Trump-Netanyahu press conference, the White House shared Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict; with Hamas saying it wasn’t consulted on the latest US plan, which includes terms it had previously rejected.
Trump used the occasion to further twist the knife in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s back by thanking Pakistan’s prime minister and army chief for supporting the US plan.
Trump’s new Gaza plan was obviously necessitated because of the following:
-Australia, Canada and UK have recognized Palestine;
-28 countries (Australia, France and UK included) demanded that Israel lift aid restrictions and immediately end operations in Gaza;
-Hamas announced it lost contacts with two hostages;
-hopes of the release of the hostages diminished without any assurance from Israel about ending the operations;
- en masse walkout during Netanyahu’s address at the United Nations.
Most amusing was Netanyahu’s telephonic apology to Qatar’s Emir Thani for bombing Doha while he was in his meeting with Trump. Perhaps the resemblance with Trump’s call to Russian President Vladimir Putin in between his last meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was just a coincidence.
Thani, who partners the US in terrorism and gifted a private jet to Trump, obviously had advance information of the Israeli strike. The US CENTCOM headquarters is located in Qatar. Ten Israeli warplanes flew 1,800 km through Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to strike Doha, and after the missile strike also landed close by to refuel. The operation was no doubt cleared by Trump who later feigned surprise and a bit of annoyance. Most conspicuous was the fact that despite being famous for precision strikes, Israel missed hitting the Hamas leadership.
Israel’s Doha strike was to orchestrate the 40-nation Arab-Islamic summit at Doha with Pakistan and Tukey (both aligned with the US) in attendance. Pakistan offered its nuclear muscle for a proposed Arab-Islamic NATO.
The Summit, orchestrated by the US, ostensibly demonstrated solidarity against Israel but was actually in place to target Iran. The Saudi-Pakistan Defence Agreement (SPDA) was in the same vein, and also aimed at India (https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/arab-islamic-nato/). Trump’s new plan, saying “Let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East” is the sweetened coating for the Arab nations.
Though Israel is supposed to release all captives within 72-hours of the ceasefire (obviously in exchange for release of all Israeli hostages by Hamas), the crux is Trump’s threat to Hamas that if it rejects the proposal, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.”
Trump’s latest peace plan appears to be a trick to get all hostages released by Hamas. But with 6,80,000 Palestinians killed (forced starvation deaths included) by April 2025 (https://arena.org.au/politics-of-counting-gazas-dead/), where is the guarantee of a ceasefire? What happens if Houthi and Hezbollah continue to fire at Israel? What if these are portrayed as continuing Hamas hostilities? Who is the guarantor that Israel will not back off?
Trump’s objective after Hamas releases all hostages, is apparently to allow Israel to continue operations in Gaza – a strategy similar to faking that Russia is violating the airspace of NATO countries. So, he will smugly end up telling the Arab-Muslim nations that he tried his level best for lasting peace in the Middle East peace, but it didn’t work out for no fault of his. Isn’t this apparent why Netanyahu mellowed down so soon after his defiant speech at the UN?
When the CIA installed Al Qaeda leader Ahmed al-Sharaa as Syria’s President, Turkey’s President Erdogan was most upset. But now Turkey is training over 300 Syrian soldiers in two bases in Turkey under a Syria-Turkey deal signed in August 2025, with expected number to increase up to 20,000 (https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/ankara-seeks-deterrence-against-tel-aviv-by-militarily-reinforcing-syria/). The propaganda that this is against Israel fools nobody.
This is the revival of Al Qaeda to set the Middle East afire, as well as the Sub Continent through the AQIS. Can we forget how the US-UK assisted Turkey to train and arm ISIS before unleashing it in 2014? Do we really need more proof of Trump’s devilish machinations?
Lt General Prakash Katoch is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are the writer’s own.